Call for new FEMA gets cool White House reaction

President Bush's Homeland Security adviser showed little enthusiasm.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Hurricane Katrina turned FEMA into a "symbol of a bumbling bureaucracy" so far beyond repair that it should be scrapped, senators said Thursday. In an appeal that got a cool reception from the White House, they called for creation of a new disaster agency as the next storm season looms.
The push to replace the beleaguered agency was the top recommendation of a hefty Senate inquiry, which concluded that top officials from New Orleans to Washington failed to adequately prepare for and respond to the deadly storm, despite weather forecasts predicting its path through the Gulf Coast.
"The first obligation of government is to protect our people," said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs investigation. "In Katrina, we failed at all levels of government to meet that fundamental obligation."
Learn from lessons
She added: "We must learn from the lessons of Katrina so that next time disaster strikes, whether it's a storm that was imminent and predicted for a long time, or a terror attack that takes us by surprise, government responds far more effectively."
Frances Fragos Townsend, President Bush's homeland security adviser, said the White House would work with Congress. But she expressed little enthusiasm for replacing the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which has borne much of the criticism for the government's weak response to Katrina.
"As we're headed into the hurricane season, now is not the time to look at moving organizational boxes around," she said aboard Air Force One as Bush traveled to the storm-ravaged Gulf Coast.
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